Chair of Oireachtas Committee warns of ‘glaring loopholes’ in Grok safeguard measures and slams response from Elon Musk
Chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Children and Equality, Deputy Keira Keogh, has described X’s decision to restrict its AI tool Grok from generating sexually explicit content only in countries where it’s illegal as “completely inadequate”.
The Mayo TD said the approach leaves “glaring loopholes” and called it a failure to protect users, particularly women and children.
Her comments came ahead of a meeting on Monday, January 19, involving the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Attorney General, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan, Minister for Media Patrick O’Donovan, and Minister of State for AI Niamh Smyth, where they were to discuss the laws in Ireland in relation to the creation and sharing of deepfake images.
Last week, Elon Musk’s platform X (formerly Twitter) announced it would introduce measures to prevent its AI chatbot Grok from generating fake images of real people in “revealing clothing” in jurisdictions where such activity is already illegal.
“Saying these restrictions apply only ‘in countries where it’s illegal’ makes them meaningless. Anyone can bypass that with a VPN. It’s simply not good enough,” Deputy Keogh said.
She described Musk’s approach as a limited, geography-based safeguard that amounts to “an unserious response to a serious problem.”
She stressed the law in Ireland is clear: “Non-consensual intimate images and child sexual abuse material are illegal here. Tech companies don’t get to pick and choose when they comply with the law.”
Deputy Keogh highlighted that Coco’s Law explicitly criminalises the sharing of non-consensual intimate images, regardless of whether AI is involved.
“There needs to be real accountability, and not just tweaking technical settings in certain regions. If a platform creates or deploys AI tools capable of generating this abusive content, then it has a responsibility to stop it.”
She added that X’s approach demonstrates a worrying lack of understanding of the real-world harm caused by such material.
“We cannot allow enforcement to depend on geography when the abuse itself is borderless. Add VPNs into the mix and the loopholes become obvious and immediate.”
Deputy Keogh noted that Fine Gael’s recent Online Safety Report reaffirmed its commitment to strong enforcement of the Digital Services Act, and said Coimisiún na Meán must have the full authority it needs to hold platforms accountable when they fail to act.
“AI cannot become a shield for companies like X to hide behind. If X is serious about safety, it must implement strong, global protections.”
The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport is due to hold a meeting on online safety next month, with platforms Meta and TikTok confirmed to attend. X has refused the invitation.
This article has been funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.